Civil War steamer that sank in 1865 may hold treasure worth
$120 million

A 12-year search for sunken gold bore its first fruit Friday, as a marine
exploration company reported finding the first cache of gold coins amid
the wreckage of a side-wheel steamer that sank off the Georgia coast in
1865.

Officials with Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa believe the coins
are part of a cargo of thousands of $20 gold pieces that the SS Republic
was carrying from New York to New Orleans for Reconstruction of the South
in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Odyssey officials said that, so far, they have found about 80 loose
coins and two wooden crates containing unknown quantities of coins in the
wreckage they discovered in August, after a search spanning more than 1,500
square miles of open ocean. That's only a small fraction of the gold the
ship reportedly was carrying when it sank during a hurricane in October
1865, 100 miles southeast of Savannah.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the second
time in a week, U.S. troops have discovered what appears to be a cache
of gold bars hidden in a truck, which could be worth just less than a quarter
of a billion dollars, according to a Pentagon official.

Soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade
discovered 999 gold bars hidden in a truck during a routine traffic inspection
near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk within the last two days, Pentagon
officials said.

If it is in fact gold, its estimated value
is thought to be close to $250 million.

On Friday, U.S. troops inspecting vehicles
near the border with Syria found a truck with more than 1,100 gold bars
estimated to be worth just more than a quarter of a billion dollars.

The driver and passenger said they had
been paid $350 to pick up the truck in Baghdad and drive it to the Iraqi
town of Qaim near the Syrian border, along a well-known smuggling route.

The bars and the men are in the custody
of the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment.

Pentagon officials said the gold will be
kept safe by U.S. forces until an Iraqi government is set up and decides
how to use it.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- At a roadblock
in Iraq, American troops confiscated what they believe may be gold bars
worth up to $500 million, defense officials said Friday.

A truck carrying some 2,000 bars was stopped
by soldiers of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at a military checkpoint
near Qaim, a northwestern city near Iraq's border with Syria, said U.S.
Central Command.

The bars still must be tested to make sure
they are gold, Central command said in a statement.

Two people were taken into custody, but
it was unclear who they were, their nationality, and where they got the
bars.

"The occupants told the soldiers that they
had been paid a total of 350,000 dinars (or $350 U.S.) to pick up the truck
in Baghdad and drive it to an unnamed individual in Al Qaim," U.S. Central
Command said. "The two had been told that the bars were bronze."

Soldiers conducted a search of their Mercedes
truck and discovered approximately 2,000 40-pound, 10-inch-long bars.

The bars may have a total worth of $500
million, depending on karat weight and purity, the statement said.

The truck, bars and two people are currently
in the custody of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.

Papua New Guinea is awash with
rumours that the government is searching New Ireland province for up to
10 tonnes of gold.

The gold, worth an estimated $375m, is
said to have been mined and processed by the Japanese during their occupation
of the island in World War II.

When the plane carrying the gold crashed
into a mountainside, villagers allegedly stashed it in a cave.

It is not the first time rumours of a Japanese
gold stash have surfaced in Papua New Guinea. There are also claims of
gold in the depths of a bay, based on a story that a submarine carrying
some of the trove sank there after an American plane bombed it.

The latest rumous gathered pace two weeks
ago, when a man reported finding rotting crates of bullion in the mountains.

The story eventually reached the government's
ears and the Papua New Guinea cabinet is said to have excitedly sent defence
forces and police - including helicopters and divers - to try to confirm
and secure it.

The government itself is saying the story
is mere "speculation".

In near future the Ministry of
Nature will announce the competition for the largest Eurasian virgin gold
and ore field "SUHOY LOG"

Story Filed: Tuesday, February 06, 2001
7:29 PM EST

ST.PETERSBURG, RUSSIA. Among the potential
customers are Canadian Barrick Gold and Placer Dome, the international
Rio Tinto, and Lanta-bank as well. The reserves of "Suhoy Log" are 1,100
tons of gold. The presence of platinum, palladium and rhodium present in
the ore found in this field.

Following unconfirmed news reports Thursday
that Hyundai Corp. found gold mines containing 300,000 tons of gold reserves
in the African nation of Mali, the Hyundai Group trading arm's stocks rose
by its daily limit for the second consecutive day to 1,525 won.

Hyundai Corp. stock had crashed to below
1,000 won in recent months in the aftermath of its parent group's worsening
liquidity shortage problems. But the standby buying orders for Hyundai
Corp. topped 100 million shares in the Korea Stock Exchange in the morning.

Shares of Young Poong Mining & Construction
and LG International, which are alleged to have participated in Hyundai
Corp.'s gold mine project as partners, also skyrocketed.

Earlier, Dong Ah Industrial Construction
Co.'s shares surged by over 10-fold to over 3,265 won by Thursday in the
wake of Dec. 5 reports that the bankrupt contractor sponsored a project
that discovered a sunken Russian ship carrying 150 trillion won ($124 billion)
gold shipment off Korea's eastern coast. As skepticism rises over Dong
Ah's gold claims, however, its stock started to fall by the daily limit
yesterday.

Analysts say that a "get-rich-quick psychology"
among the retail stock investors, devastated by last year's crash of the
technology-heavy Kosdaq market, seems to be behind the rampant speculative
buying of the gold stocks.

The speculative individuals, who clearly
remember the bubble days of the Kosdaq market early last year, are not
satisfied with below-10 percent or lower returns expected from the Korea
Stock Exchange, rushing to strike it extremely rich instantly from a 'gold'
stock, said the analysts.

"The gold claims by Hyundai Corp. appear
to have been excessively exaggerated to suit the strike-it-rich dreams
of retail investors," said Kim Kyong-shin, a director at Regent Securities.
"The speculators' target has just changed from the unconfirmed business
potentials of venture start-ups to gold ship or mine," he said, explaining
that the fundamental symptoms are similar.

The Daishin Securities also warned in a
report that it will take at least two to three years for Hyundai Corp.
to materialize its profits from the alleged gold mine, even if it really
exists.

Even Hyundai Securities, a sister company
to Hyundai Corp., showed skeptical reaction, saying that retail investors
should be more careful about buying the gold shares.

Reflecting the vague aspect of the gold
claims, the estimated amount of gold reserves in the Mali mine widely varied
from 30 tons to 300,000 tons. Hyundai Corp. spokesmen themselves said that
the exact reserves might not be revealed in six months.

In another ironic incident, the stock of
Hyundai Merchant Marine, a Hyundai Group unit, which is pronounced "Hyundai
Sangson (in Korean)," similar to Hyundai Corp. (Hyundai Sangsa), skyrocketed
at the Seoul bourse, as a local broadcasting reporter mistakenly mentioned
Hyundai Merchant as the discoverer of the Mali gold mine.

By Yoo Cheong-mo Staff reporter2001.01.06

-------------------------------------------------------------

That
the bankrupt contractor sponsored a project that discovered a sunken Russian
ship carrying 150 trillion won ($124 billion) gold shipment off Korea's
eastern coast. Let's see, $US124 billion is about 460 million ounces of
gold, more than the US holds, 50% of worldwide central bank holdings, and
10% of all gold ever mined. Sounds improbable. When one consider less than
2 billion ounces had been mined when the ship sunk - it's an impossible
claim !

A crater in an undersea volcano near Japan
may be the biggest pot of precious metals ever found, holding gold and
silver each worth around $2 billion. Its treasure is a 30-acre lump of
minerals, as broad as the Pentagon building and 100 feet high, that is
still growing as mineral-rich, scalding-hot water spews from a profusion
of chimneylike vents.

Finding the monster nugget "is the most
exciting thing I've ever been associated with," says volcanologist Richard
Fiske of the Smithsonian Institution, who worked with the Japanese-led
research team that announced the find in last week's Science. They spotted
it through the portholes of a three-person research submarine, the Shinkai
2000, in water 4,000 feet deep in an active volcanic region about 250 miles
south of Tokyo. It comes as interest is heating up in deep-sea mining worldwide.

Initial sampling of the Japanese discovery
puts the gold content at 20 grams per ton, 40 times the average for typical
deposits on land. It may be the largest gold deposit, by tonnage, ever
found. To scientists, the excitement comes from proof that many on-land
precious metal deposits are remnants of ancient, uplifted volcanoes that
exploded beneath the sea. The caldera is in Japan's exclusive economic
zone, giving that mineral-poor nation full right to exploit it.